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Manchester City v Fulham
 
Saturday 14 August 2004 15:00
 
COLEMAN'S MIDFIELD DILEMMA
 
 
Playmaker Steed Malbranque will miss the game against Manchester City with a groin injury which could keep him out for the first six weeks of the Barclays Premiership season.

Fulham boss Chris Coleman takes a depleted midfield to the City of Manchester Stadium to renew his acquaintance with former boss Kevin Keegan.

Fellow midfielder Lee Clark will also play no part after failing to shake off a troublesome calf knock.

New signings Andy Cole, Tomasz Radzinski and Claus Jensen are all in line to make their Barclays Premiership debuts for the club, but striker Luis Boa Morte is on Olympic duty with Portugal.

However, Coleman has warned his players not to be complacent and to avoid a Manchester City backlash.

The manager said: "They'll come out with a point to prove and we've got to make sure we aren't the victims.

"A lot of people wrote them off towards the end of last season but they stayed up.

"There will be pressure on them at home. They have got great supporters and it will be tough - they are a good team with good players.

"Kevin has been there and seen it all before - he is a winner and he will want to win that game."

City boss Kevin Keegan has no new injury concerns and restated his belief that Shaun Wright-Phillips will commit his future to the club.

Wright-Phillips' advisers and City officials have been locked in new contract amid reported interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.

But Keegan believes Wright-Phillips' own desire to stay at the City of Manchester stadium will prove the decisive factor on the eve of the new Barclays Premiership season.

Keegan said: "It is my belief that Shaun will stay here.

"That is what the fans and the players and I want, and more importantly, I believe it is what Shaun wants so I don't think there will be a problem there."

Wright-Phillips scooped City's player of the year award last season and will prove as vital as ever as Keegan's men face Fulham bidding to build on last season's disappointing 16th place.

City's form nose-dived in the second part of the season and nine home draws played a large part in keeping them in the relegation dogfight until the penultimate weekend of the campaign.

Keegan has responded by spending his small pot of summer cash on two tenacious full-backs in Danny Mills and Ben Thatcher.

He said: "For £100,000 we have got a Welsh international and an England international so I think we have done well.

"All managers want to buy expensive players because they are usually the best ones but the board have been good to me in the past and this time they came to me and said we had nothing to spend."

Keegan believes his new boys' respective experiences of a relegation dogfight will instil a degree of extra steel into his side.

He is determined they help City make their troublesome home form a thing of the past and set about turning the City of Manchester Stadium into a venue which visiting teams fear.

Keegan said: "We drew too many games we should have won here last season - that's what killed us in the end.

"I hope we will see a more resilient City this time. The big message we have to send out is that we've got the players, can we get them to be a bit more consistent and do better than we did last year?

"I think the answer to all of those questions is yes."

He believes the experience he and his side went through towards the end of last season can stand them in good stead after again being tipped for a season of struggle.

Keegan added: "Last season was a poor one but there are lessons to be learned from it and we might gain something from having those setbacks."

City's American midfielder Claudio Reyna - who turned down a move to Fulham last summer - concurred with his manager's opinion that home form would prove crucial in revitalising his side's fortunes.

Reyna said: "With these fans here it should become a fortress and every time we play at home we have to go for it and try to win.

"We can definitely learn from last year and look forward to making changes and getting things right." .

Keegan is set to start with both Thatcher and Mills as Sun Jihai only returned from Asian Cup duty last week.

Paulo Wanchope is unavailable as he is on World Cup duty with Costa Rica, while new keeper Geert de Vlieger is a long-term absentee with an Achilles injury.

Manchester City (from): James, Thatcher, Distin, Reyna, Fowler, Sibierski, Macken, Mills, McManaman, Dunne, Barton, Bosvelt, Bischoff, Sinclair, Wright-Phillips, Anelka, Negouai, Jihai, Ellegaard, Sommeil.

Fulham (from): Van der Sar, Volz, Goma, Pearce, Bocanegra, Bonnissel, Knight, Djetou, Jensen, Legwinski, Diop, John, McBride, Cole, Radzinski, Pembridge, McKinlay, Crossley.